Boulevard Drive-In announce passing of longtime owner Wes Neal

KANSAS CITY, Mo. — The Boulevard Drive-In Theatre in Kansas City, Kansas announced Thursday the passing of longtime owner Samuel Wesley (Wes) Neal .

According to his obituary , Neal passed away on Wednesday, Sept. 18, at the age of 96.

In 1954, four years after Boulevard Drive-In opened its gates with the movie “The Lady Takes a Sailor” starring Jane Syman and Dennis Morgan, a young Wes Neal moved from Wardell, Missouri to Kansas City to take his first job with a pharmaceutical company.

Eight hours a day didn’t keep Neal as busy as his work growing up on the farm, so he went looking for a second job.

“I had so much energy I couldn’t sleep. I came to the show one night and asked him if they needed help, and they put me to work,” Neal told FOX4 in a 2021 interview . “I got to work all day and half the night.”

He would work at the drive-in every day since and in 1984 become the owner.

To carry the theater through the lean years after television became a mainstay in American homes, Neal started the Swap and Shop. Open every Saturday and Sunday year-round.

For decades, Neal would personally check all 700 speakers every single Monday.

In 2012, Neal invested $100,000 in a digital projector, catapulting the historic drive-in theater straight into the modern age.

A visitation for Neal will be held on Tuesday, Oct. 1 from 12:30 p.m. to 2 p.m. at Chapel Hill-Butler Funeral Home in KCK, followed by a funeral service.

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